PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It started out as a novelty but it’s become a beloved tradition and on Wednesday, Philadelphia celebrated a thousand weddings at the LOVE sculpture in JFK Plaza.
Meng Lin thought she was choosing the simplest of weddings when she signed up for Wednesday morning in LOVE Park, so she wasn’t expecting the media coverage.
“I was kind of surprised that we have a lot of photographers here but it’s a good thing that they’re celebrating a thousand weddings here so it’s a special day,” she said.
“The experience was fantastic,” said groom Ren Jing.
Parks Commissioner Susan Slawson agreed it was a milestone worth celebrating.
“This is super exciting that they’re choosing to come here to say yes, to spend the rest of their lives together,” she said. “It doesn’t get any better than this. This is what we offer.”
The city started offering weddings at the Robert Indiana icon in 2018 as part of the grand reopening of the park after a multi-million dollar renovation, and was immediately met with a huge demand.
For lifelong Philadelphians Robin and Michael, when they were looking around for a wedding venue, the LOVE sculpture seemed perfect.
“I thought it was cool and something different, and we love our city, so yeah, we thought, why not?” said Robin.
It turned out just as she'd hoped.
“We are so happy with the gorgeous weather. All of our family and friends are with us, so we feel blessed.”
LOVE Park manager Andrew Emma believes it's a unique service for a park system to offer, as unique as the park itself.
“Most parks are, you know, it's nature, it's other things, it's activity. There's food trucks, but just that simple word, “love,” connects people in a different way to this one square block. And so leaning into it, I think, is exactly what we should be doing.”
